March 16, 2011
South Carolina Head Coach Ray Tanner
Opening Statement
It was a god win for us tonight. I was really pleased with our pitching, especially being able to stretch Colby out. He’s been waiting to get some innings and he did a nice job for us. We gave Neff a little bit of work, we will bounce him back this weekend and Colby made a statement about getting some future innings. They put us in the position to win the game, we got a few more hits than we have been getting lately.
Was there a sense of urgency in winning tonight’s game?
Well there was for me, I don’t know that I should be in that situation necessarily, but we play 56 regular season games and they are all important t, you don’t get any exhibition games, they all count whether you are in the league or out of the league. And you want to win as many as you can. Certainly going into out first weekend of conference play. You want to have a little momentum, a little bit of feel good going in.
The chances of Colby Homes getting a start later in the season…
Absolutely… Colby last year I thought did a super job for us early in the year as a true freshman pitching in the mid week. He was making a statement about maybe getting into the weekend at some point and then he kind of went backwards toward the second half, but he’s more poised now. He was sick a little bit the first week prior to us opening up and that cost him maybe some innings the first weekend. But he pitched well enough tonight to probably get a start early next week.
Morales hitting as a senior…
It is important to cover your teammates sometimes when things are not as good but it is also important if you are going to have a good year as a team. You have to have your veteran guys be leaders in the clubhouse and between the line. I think it is apparent in most situations those guys have to perform for you, they have to lead your club off the field but perform between the lines and he is doing a nice job for us.
Adrian Morales, Second Baseman
Pressure on offensive struggles…
I don’t think so. They aren’t hitting what they want to hit but I think they will turn it around, everybody works hard and everyone is nice and relaxed. They are here at a big time program. I think they will get it together.
Jake Williams, Outfielder
On playing his old team…
“It was interesting playing them. I still have a lot of good friends on the team so having the game that I had it was a great feeling.”
Colby Holmes, Pitcher
On his performance tonight…
I knew I was going to get to pitch so i came out and had my fastball working, my slider was good, my curveball wasn’t too great in the first couple of innings but I found it in the last couple. I was pounding the zone throwing strikes.
